Introduction
CHRISTIANS will be familiar with the “Parable of the Talents.” as related in Matthew 25, verses 14-30. For those who are not, I share this summary.
It’s a story about a master who, before setting off on a long trip, entrusted his property to three of his servants, based on their abilities. One servant got 5 talents, the second got 2, and the third received one. Upon returning home, the master asked each servant to account for the talents they’d received. The first and the second servants reported that they doubled the value of their talents. The master was pleased and rewarded them with a commission of sorts. However, the master was quite unhappy with the third servant who instead of using his talent, buried it. He dissed the servant and called him “wicked and slothful.”
Seeds of my conviction
I have long been convinced that each of us is Divinely gifted well before birth with at least one talent or ability which can help us perform satisfactorily in learning and in the execution of skills. I’ve been equally convinced that this talent base is meant to keep us in mental, physical, and spiritual alignment. I feel that it is when this alignment is lost that we become unhappy with ourselves, with each other, and with our world. Thus, I consider it a tragedy that many Saint Lucians go through life either unaware of this inestimable, inherent, endowment; or are unable to nurture and use it for personal and/or national advancement. Consequently, I believe significant positive benefits will accrue to our people and our country from the adoption of talent-based approach to development.
Benefits of a Talent-based Approach
For starters, such an approach will give a sharper focus and purpose to national development policies and strategies and enable better targeting and hence less wastage of scarce resources. Importantly, it will help to redefine poverty as we have come to know and measure it.
Traditional assessments of poverty have tended to focus exclusively on social and economic factors such as personal and household income and access to land, education, health, and other basic services. Often, it’s wrongly assumed that the poor have no strengths and sadly, the poor are encouraged to feel that way through policies that wittingly or unwittingly encourage dependence on the State. To be clear, I’m not saying the poor should not receive assistance from the State. Rather, I’m asserting that the purpose of this assistance must ALWAYS be to help the poor to pull themselves out of poverty.
A talent-focused poverty assessment survey works from a supposition that even though an individual’s talents may or may not be developed, it could be treated as an asset that a government can work with to move an individual, family or community out of poverty. I can see this approach eliciting a more positive public response to national census exercises.
When in my closing days as PS Planning (circa July/August 1997), my views were sought on a proposal to set up the first Short Term Employment Programme aka STEP, I opined that the programme as designed would encourage dependency among participants and not build their resilience. Thus, I strongly recommended that a skills assessment survey be done to identify the innate skills and talents of potential STEP participants and that they be given the opportunity to learn a trade to give them a more sustainable livelihood, rather than consign them to cut grass for the rest of their lives. My views did not prevail.
The Imperative of Education Reform
Of course, a successful transition to a talent-based approach to human development would be nigh impossible without fundamental changes to the education system. For some time now, the thrust of this system has been on academic performance/excellence. Thus, a student who is a gifted musician or artist can emerge from years of primary or secondary school without receiving any tangible support to develop his/her innate talent. While I consider the establishment of the Sports Academy and the planned transformation of select secondary schools into technical schools as steps in the right direction, I believe the education system ought to be re-engineered to enable the adoption of a talent-based approach from kindergarten onwards.
Often, I ask myself: what if our school system was set up to nurture the talents of our children? What if parents and teachers are trained to identify the earliest manifestations of the talents of children? What if before a child enters the education system, authorities meet with each student in the presence and his/her parent, and the student is asked: what talents do you think you have? What are the things you love to do? And what if this information is used to create an electronic profile of a student and to map his her/development as he/she moves through the education system and beyond? And what if this developmental programme included a blend of academic and talent-focused subjects complemented by a sustained mentoring programme that helps the student to build the right personality, temperament, mental toughness, self-esteem, motivation etcetera?
Accommodating the academically gifted student
A talent can also include the ability to quickly grasp new concepts, and generally to learn more quickly than others. Quite often, a talent is not inherent but can be acquired through teaching and practice. While such giftedness is not the focus of this commentary, in the current education schema, gifted students suffer a similar plight as technically gifted students. As far as I’m aware there is no dedicated education programme for gifted students. Back in 1964/65, there was such a programme at the St. Aloysius R.C Boys School. Admittedly, it was a makeshift initiative designed to accommodate a group of students who were bright enough to sit and easily pass the Common Entrance Examination, but who were too young to enter St. Mary’s College (SMC). These students were placed in a class called “Junior Special” and exposed to many of the subjects that were taught in Form 1 at SMC, without the hard science subjects like Physics and Chemistry and languages like French. We were taught Mental Arithmetic which entailed solving complex arithmetical problem sans calculator as well as general science, history of the Caribbean and world geography.
A Talent Based Approach to Prison Reform
I believe a talent-based approach to human development could significantly reduce the number of people who end up in prison. I posit that there are few if any musicians, artisans, plumbers, electricians etc., in our prisons. Why should we wait until our people get to prison to give them a skill to reduce the likelihood of their return? And if the plan is to teach them a skill, why not teach them to run a business as well?
For some time now, I have been advocating for a re-conceptualization of the traditional prison idea, in large part because it’s not working. What if Bordelais was re-cast as a skills development school qua business? How does a “Bordelais People Development Institute or Cooperative” grab you?
Here’s my thinking behind this idea. We know well that rehabilitation into the society is a massive challenge for former Bordelais residents. We also know that even after acquiring a skill, these former residents often have a hard time getting a job in the formal economy. Hence, my idea is that they be trained to run their own businesses upon their release. I sincerely believe this change could positively impact the psyche of those who enter and leave Bordelais. Moreover, as things now stand, Bordelais is a heavy burden on the finances of the State. Recasting it as a business or cooperative or even as a not-for profit entity could fundamentally change the way the place is run. In this new scheme, residents are treated as workers who are paid decent wages and/or as shareholders who earn dividends based on their respective contributions.
This idea may be seen as too radical by some, but I see no downsides to it. Not only is it entirely consistent with the mantra of “putting people first;” it will also help our people from all walks of life to feel better about themselves.
Conclusion
We can’t keep using the same approaches that are yielding the same unsatisfactory results. We must be brave and innovative in our thinking. Even if a thing “ain’t broke,” that doesn’t mean we can’t make it better. There can be no shame in striving for perfection.